I recently made the decision to have my book translated into French, and I dare say I’m doing it “by popular demand”. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little on that, but we’ll see over time.
When someone describes me as “perfectly bilingual”, I disagree, since I’m very aware of my limits in French. Yes, I sometimes write blogs in French, myself, all on my own, but I’ll never publish them without having someone else review them before I hit the “publish” button.
It’s my daughter who does me this favour, and she does it gladly, especially since I started offering her $2 for every mistake she finds and corrects. She hasn’t gotten rich yet, but let’s just say I’ve already written a few blogs that cost me dearly, because of my inattention to the grammar rules that I had nonetheless learned in elementary school at École St-Rémi in the 70s.
But it’s a reality that in Quebec, having your book in English but not having a French version isn’t ideal. I hesitated to translate it from the start for various reasons, including the cost of translation, the question of distribution in Quebec, and above all the complexity of translating the title and the names of the key chapters.
The English title is “SHIFT your Family Business”, where the letters of the word “SHIFT” are an acronym based on the words Start, Help, Invest, Flexible and Talk.
I have no idea how to translate all that clearly and precisely, while creating something that sounds good and makes sense.
I awarded the translation contract to a professional in the field and I’m relying on her. A week after giving her the project, I asked her about her ideas for the title, and she replied that she preferred to wait until she had finished the work, to fully understand the scope of my message, before naming it.
I found her answer brilliant; but I so can’t wait to see what we’ll call it!
Coming back now to the title of this blog, I’m also proceeding with the non-simultaneous translation of my website, my business cards, etc.
The task of developing your identity and doing your professional “branding” is very important for marketing services, so I decided to do these steps in my mother tongue first.
For a while, I looked at the need to have all my marketing tools translated into French from a negative point of view, as a necessary evil. With time, and with a bit of reflection (and by talking with more and more francophones), I see it differently.
Even though I admit to not being “perfectly” bilingual, I’m easily “bilingual enough” to provide my services in both languages. And there’s nothing negative about that. If that’s not an asset, I don’t know what qualifies as an asset.
This blog is coming to an end soon, and I haven’t yet tried to attach a “family business” angle to it, apart from paying my daughter for her editing talents.
Let’s go with this one: An entrepreneur who builds a business often has all the talents needed to create something of value for their family, but sometimes has difficulty TRANSLATING their efforts in a way that their children, and their grandchildren, can continue to benefit from.
In a pinch, I could have translated my book myself. But I know my limits, and I decided to hire a professional, a specialist, who knows this craft much better than I do. In the end, the result will surely be more satisfying.
Editor’s note: this blog cost my father $14.
